Not the chip in the article, but still a Cortex M0+
http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers/cortex_m0_m0/lp...
These are about £0.71 at single unit quantities and are very hobbyist friendly in a DIP package. Not sure what I will do with them, but I feel the need to buy 100.
Note that as far as I know MCUs from that series don't have an ADC, which can be a real PITA.
Personally, I've switched to using MCUs in QFP packages a while ago. You get a lot more pins, peripherals, speed, etc for the physical dimensions and price. If you decide to make a custom PCB for a project you don't end up stuck with a huge DIP package or having to evaluate and port the software to a new MCU in an SMD package.
QFPs are perfectly easy to hand solder with the right tools, which are in fact really basic: either a temperature controlled soldering station or a hot air station and solder paste.
I'm now experimenting with QFN packages, which reduce cost and size compared to QFP. Hand soldering seems to work ok, but I have yet to see the yield for small batch manual assembly.
We've worked with an assembly house that does manual assembly for small-quantity (10-20) batches. Usually they ask for extras due to attrition, but so far we've not lost any.
I usually check the quality of their assembly under a 20x microscope. I've only found 1 board that had a bit of stray solder between 2 pins which was easy to clean. So, yes, manual assembly seems to work, but that may depend on the assembler proficiency.
Yep, I keep trying to find an excuse to use then, largely though I end up wanting more IO than you usually find in the DIP ARM packages. With a controller as tiny as those in the article, it should be possible to turn it into a 14/16 pin DIP-like; I'm assuming that you could throw an XTAL on the adapter board, or that you can reduce the pins further since there's likely more than one ground and vcc. It would certainly be a nice toy to play with for projects since I usually don't need more than 10 i/o and if I do, i can get away with shift registers when I need more.
Personally, I've switched to using MCUs in QFP packages a while ago. You get a lot more pins, peripherals, speed, etc for the physical dimensions and price. If you decide to make a custom PCB for a project you don't end up stuck with a huge DIP package or having to evaluate and port the software to a new MCU in an SMD package.
QFPs are perfectly easy to hand solder with the right tools, which are in fact really basic: either a temperature controlled soldering station or a hot air station and solder paste.
I'm now experimenting with QFN packages, which reduce cost and size compared to QFP. Hand soldering seems to work ok, but I have yet to see the yield for small batch manual assembly.